With all the thefts and break-ins lately, this is sadly necessary.

Vehicle break-ins and thefts have become commonplace in many urban areas, with the problem spreading into suburbs and beyond. While many truck owners have turned to aftermarket systems to keep their ride safe, Ford has latched onto the opportunity to embed some new, innovative security features into the refreshed 2024 F-150 lineup.

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That’s a wise move, not only because it differentiates the truck from the Ram 1500 and Chevy/GMC twins, but also because F-150s have become incredibly popular theft targets in many areas. It also follows the trend over the past ten-plus years of automakers trying to compete with the aftermarket. And some even theorize this is to help combat cross-shopping with the Tesla Cybertruck, although we suspect that’s less of a factor.

New for the 2024 Ford F-150 is Ford Stolen Vehicle Services, something which will filter into the rest of the Ford lineup later. The telematics service tracks the location of the truck if it’s stolen. Through the 24/7 Ford Stolen Vehicle Services Call Center owners get help reporting the truck as stolen to local authorities, with the call center providing location updates.

But the new Ford F-150 also has theft prevention features because as we all know, it’s better to stop someone from stealing your ride than to track them down after. The owner can get mobile alerts if someone tries to get into, tow, or otherwise tamper with their pickup.

This is accomplished through an array of sensors. For example, the GPS tracker will detect if the truck moves while the engine is powered off, a sign it’s possibly being towed. An accelerometer detects if the vehicle is being elevated in an attempt to tow it or perhaps the swipe the wheels. It also can detect if your truck is bumped or otherwise disturbed while parked.

In reality, the theft prevention tech might present quite the problem for repo agents, something we wonder if Ford has a contingency plan to accommodate or not. After all, some people view repossessions as borderline theft, although not paying the bank for the vehicle it holds the title to makes such characterizations problematic at best.

Some are already trying to draw parallels between the 2024 Ford F-150’s features and Tesla’s Sentry Mode. However, there aren’t cameras embedded on the front, back, and sides of the vehicle that record activity and allow the owner to stream video live. That’s where the aftermarket helps fill a gap, until Ford sees fit to add such features to perhaps the next generation F-150.

Images via Ford